I was recently talking with a friend of mine in the computer repair business. Somewhere in the conversation I mentioned that the Internet had virtually replaced printed Yellow Pages directories. "He said ‘not for me, 35% of our new business comes from the Yellow Pages."

He then explained that when a small business or an individual has a computer issue, more often than not they cannot access the Internet, so where do they go – you guessed it, the good old yellow pages!

Although not related to his example, this got me thinking about our business model. After all, people outside the professional answering service industry have on occasion asked me if all the advances on the Internet have slowed our business. The answer has always been ‘not at all’ because we have been able to grow steadily for so many years.

But was I missing something? There really has been an explosion of ways in which people can communicate over the last several years, so why is the ‘good old telephone’ still able to hold its own? I paged through some of our recent marketing messages for reassurance:

•If your customers can’t talk to you, you’re losing money.

•What do patients hear when they call your practice?

•Five common problems people have when calling a business.

My brief exercise did confirm that human to human conversation is, and will always be a necessary part of the business world. In fact, the ‘instant gratification’ model created by the Internet, and now the latest smart-phones, may actually help fuel the live person answering service business.

With advancements of the Internet and Social Media, people now expect to be able to reach your company outside of normal business hours. If they can’t reach you, they may switch to a provider who can be reached. And a certified, professionally trained answering service is still one of the best ways to help you put your best foot-forward. This realization helped me put my mind at ease, at least for the time-being.

As we all work to streamline our processes and build good business for our clients and ourselves, it is important to take a step back every so often and challenge the conventions we have come to rely on. You may be pleasantly surprised, and you will always learn something new.